Well done Adam. Seems like you got a lot of 'work' done out there. I am anxious to hear the account of your day on the island.

First of all, another batch of 20 or so photos have been posted.

www.flickr.com/photos/22747036@N02/

Secondly, here's 1/2 of the story from my last few days in Nicaragua.

Sorry for the delay in writing about this, I've been a bit busy since I got back.

In my finals days in Nicaragua, I rushed around trying to research the property title and visit the island. I managed to find a good recommended lawyer, who unfortunately didn't speak any English. She was going to get the title from the department of records for me, but I found out too late that she needs the name of the owner to find the record. I mailed the realtor asking for the name of the owner, but didn't hear back from him until after I got back to America. More on that in a minute.

The lawyer for the owner of the property was only 3 doors down from our lawyer, so when I saw him I quickly asked him for permission to visit the island. No problem he told me.

On my last full day in Nicaragua, I hopped on a noon bus heading for Puerto Diaz. The road wasn't bad, but the bus stopped all of the time, and was unbelievably slow. It took 2.5 hours to travel the short 20 miles between Juigalpa and Puerto Diaz. Upon arriving in Puerto Diaz I rush to hire a boat to see the island. I'm now in a hurry because the last bus back to Juigalpa leaves at 5pm.

You have a very clear view of the island from the shore in Puerto Diaz. I see a boat coming into shore and rush over to talk to the captain. He originally asks for $75 for the trip, but I quickly haggle that down to $50. This was the single most expensive thing in 2 months in Nicaragua but I didn't try for a price cheaper than that since my Nicaraguan friends in Juigalpa told me that was the actual price. Later I'd learn that fuel in Puerto Diaz is $4.50/gallon.

It's a quick little 30 minute trip over to the island. It's relatively calm with only a moderate breeze and the swells are about 18" to 24" (that's my best guess). When we get to the island, we circle around and find the dock. At the dock are a couple of fishermen, and some kids. When we pull up another guy comes out; he's apparently the overseer for the island. I tell him that I have permission from the lawyer of the owner, and would like to see the island.

Then comes the bad news. He tells me that we're not allowed to come ashore. Permission from the lawyer isn't good enough. He won't allow me to see the island without written permission from the owner. I plead with him. I explain that I'm flying back to the US tomorrow, and this is my only chance to see the island. I threatened him a bit telling him that if the island doesn't sell because he refused to let me see it, then the owner would probably be very angry with him. None of this convinces him. [In retrospect I should have offered him a bribe.]

I take a quick dip to check out the water. On the other side of the island we have big swells. On the quiet side, the water is very tranquil. The water is a dark color because of the lake bottom, but the water is perfectly clear, slightly cool, and lovely to swim in.

It's then time to go. I'm pretty upset with not seeing the island, but what can we do. But then the engine won't start. The boat captain and fishermen try again and again and again, and the engine simply won't start. Slowly they start taking the engine to pieces in an attempt to fix it.

I ask the overseer again if he'll let me see the island. They just laugh at me. But then a bit later, they relent. They tell me that they'll let me see the island, but I absolutely cannot tell the owner that they let me do this, and cannot take any photos.

We quickly make a loop around the island. It's actually nicer than I expected from both Indigos photos and from the realtor's photos. Some areas are indeed absolutely covered in rocks. But the area around the house has already been cleared of rocks, and my guides show me how they clear the rocks. They simply roll them down the steep hills.

I also investigated all of the bird shit. In Juigalpa, there are hundreds of LOUD black birds which gather on the trees as sunset. It seems that these same birds gather in flocks on the trees on the island.

There is clearly a windy side and a quiet side. The windy side is moderately windy today. It really could be possible to have perfectly tranquil swimming on one side of the island, and windsurfing just a little ways away on the other side of the island.

The views from the island are spectacular.

The spiny little bushes are horrible. I reached down to check out one of them, and a vicious little thorn imbeds itself in my finger. This will absolutely have to be cleared before we do anything else with the island.

We finish our tour, and I have to echo Indigo's words after visiting the island. Just "YES". It's pretty damn nice.

My one concern is the size. It's just slightly smaller than I imagined. And so we might want to consider reducing the number of shares. If we assume that we can negotiate the price down a bit, then we can also lower the number of shares by a bit.

...

There is more to this story, but I have to pack for Vegas. I'll continue it on Saturday or Sunday.